The private spaceflight company SpaceX launches its first unmanned Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a Dec. 8, 2010 on a test flight using a Falcon 9 rocket in this webcast still.Credit: SpaceX.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? The first unmanned space capsule
built by millionaire rocket maker Elon Musk blasted off on a maiden voyage
today (Dec. 8), in a historic milestone for his private spaceflight company
SpaceX and the commercial space industry.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the company's robotic
Dragon space capsule, lifted off at 10:43 a.m.
EST (1543 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch
Complex 40. The capsule's successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean more than three hours later made SpaceX the first commercial company to re-enter a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit.

Shortly after launch, at 10:52 a.m. EST
(1552 GMT), Dragon jettisoned the Falcon 9's second stage and began circling
Earth.

"Dragon is in orbit," a
launch controller said.

"Great day here at
SpaceX," SpaceX director of marketing Emily Shanklin said. "Looks
like we had a great flight."

The successful liftoff occurred after an earlier launch
attempt at 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT) this morning was aborted just under three
minutes before launch, due to a false computer alarm.

The mission was the first flight test of the Dragon capsule
and the second launch of a Falcon 9 rocket. It lasted a little over 3 hours, ending with the Dragon spacecraft re-entering Earth's atmosphere and
splashing down in the Pacific Ocean 500 miles (nearly 805 kilometers) off the
coast of Mexico. Shortly after splashdown, SpaceX officials reported that the operation had been a success. [INFOGRAPHIC:
Inside Look at SpaceX's Dragon Capsule]

"This would represent an
important milestone in the history of space, heralding the dawn of a new era
where private companies can now bring back spacecraft from orbit," Musk
told SPACE.com before launch. "Successful recovery of Dragon would also
bode very well for future astronaut transport."

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX, short for Space
Exploration Technologies, was founded by Musk, who also co-founded the online
payment system Paypal, in 2002. Musk is also the CEO of Tesla, an electric car
company.

In the spectacular morning launch, the Falcon 9 rocket carried
the Dragon
space capsule on its ascent into low-Earth orbit. The capsule separated from the rocket's second stage and made two orbits of the
Earth while demonstrating various operations, including telemetry, navigation
and maneuvering abilities.

The launch was originally scheduled for Dec. 7, but was
delayed 24 hours to give technicians time to investigate two cracks that were
found on the second-stage engine nozzle extension of the Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX engineers worked overnight to trim the cracked
section of the nozzle extension, and tests that were performed throughout the
day Tuesday showed that the repairs had been successful.

Earlier this week, Musk told MSNBC that he predicts the
chances of success for this test flight to be about 60 percent. With the success of Dragon's first test flight,
SpaceX has become the very first commercial company to launch and re-enter a
spacecraft from low-Earth orbit ? a significant milestone for the young but
burgeoning private spaceflight industry.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets stand about 180 feet (nearly 55
meters) tall and are 12 feet (3.6 meters) wide, according to SpaceX
descriptions. The Dragon capsule and its unpressurized trunk are just over 20
feet (6 meters) long and have an interior cabin that is just over 10 feet (3
meters) wide at its widest point.

The Dragon space capsules are named after the song Puff the
Magic Dragon by the group Peter, Paul and Mary, because many critics considered
it to be impossible, SpaceX officials have said. SpaceX's Falcon 9 and smaller
Falcon 1 rockets are named after the Millennium Falcon, the fictional
"Star Wars" spaceship of choice for the character Han Solo.

Today's test flight was also the first by any company under
NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which is
designed to stimulate the development of private
vehicles capable of carrying cargo and crew to the International Space
Station.

As part of the COTS deal, NASA has provided SpaceX with $278
million for successful demonstration tests of a vehicle and hardware capable of
ferrying cargo to the space station.

Separately, SpaceX has a fixed $1.6 billion contract with
NASA to use its Dragon spacecraft for cargo delivery flights to the
International Space Station, following the retirement of the agency's space
shuttle fleet. SpaceX plans to fly its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule on at
least 12 unmanned missions to deliver supplies to the space station through
2016.

NASA has also inked a $1.9 billion deal with the Virginia-based spaceflight
company Orbital Sciences Corp. to provide eight cargo flights to the
International Space Station using its unmanned Cygnus spacecraft and Taurus 2
rockets. The first flights of those craft are expected in 2011.

SpaceX will follow up this demonstration with a series of
other test flights, each with increasingly more complex mission objectives. If
the standards of the COTS program are met, SpaceX could begin carrying cargo to
and from the space station as early as next year.

Eventually, SpaceX hopes to win a contract to one day ferry
astronauts to and from station ? though the Dragon capsule has yet to be
man-rated to carry human passengers into space.